VoicePro 
My Experience & Review
of NET10 Prepaid Celluar
I don't really use my cell phone much. I'm in the office during business hours and
I'm not one to talk on the phone when I'm out with other people.
So my cell phone really gets used only for quick calls to touch base or to make arrangements.
So one day I decided to reduce my costs. But I also wanted to keep the same number and I didn't want to accept a lower quality of service. So I did my research and narrowed it down to two prepaid cellular services. TracFone and NET10. As it turns out, TracFone owns Net10. When NET10 customer service calls me the caller ID comes up as "Trac Phone" which I find interesting since their name is spelled TracFone. But that must be a mistake Verizon made in the Caller ID database. Verizon never could spell my name right either.
They both offer prepaid airtime cards that can be added to the phone when needed. They both let you keep your unused minutes if you keep the service by adding more minutes before the expiration date.
I did some calculations and realized that I was paying 50¢ a minute with my old subscription service due to the fact that I used it so little and still had to pay the high monthly fees. There is no monthly fee with NET10 and the minutes are always 10¢. I only pay for the minutes I buy. And any unused minutes roll over. So if I have a high-usage month suddenly, I still don't pay extra since I am just using the unused minutes from prior months.
Pricing difference: 10¢ or 25¢
The pricing difference between TracFone and NET10 made it easy to decide which one to try. I didn't worry about the expiration date issue because I would add minutes for a whole year for $200 with no further need to think about it or to pay any more bills except once a year.With NET10, as long as I add another 2000 minutes by the end of the year, any unused minutes roll over. The cost is always 10¢ a minute. That's a lot easier to work with than all the complicated methods of reducing the cost that TracFone offers. TracFone's main charge is 25¢ per minute. But you can but a double minute card that cuts the cost in half on future additions. They also have promo codes advertised from time to time to get it even lower. With all that you can get close to 10¢. But why bother when NET10 is always 10¢
Phones in the store
Now for the good part. I looked at some phones in the store and almost bought one there. It works the same if you order over the Internet or if you but one in a store. The phone needs to be activated by adding minutes. The first time you do that, you can have a random local number assigned to the phone, or you can request to transfer your existing number from your present carrier.Phones on the website
But wait, I didn't buy the phone in the store. I came home and went on my own website to check out NET10 and I found newer phones were already made available online. Some phones include minutes. I selected one that included a camera, speakerphone, and 300 minutes. So I figured I would need to but more minutes for a couple of months. That alone saved me money already in the first month.The phone was shipped free (that offer of free shipping may end soon) in two days and then the fun part started. They allow one to check out the phone and return it if not happy. But I was delighted with the condition and features of my new phone. So my next step was to activate it. When I make a decision I go all the way. So I decided to transfer my number rather than starting with a temp number. I could have transferred later if I wanted to. But they say it can take up to two weeks to transfer, so I wanted to get it started right away.
Transfering your number
You can do it over the phone with customer service, which takes about 10 minutes on-hold until you get an agent. Or you can do it on their web site. I am comfortable doing things on my own, so I logged in on the site and entered all the info about my present AT&T service that they needed to initiate the transfer.Lo and behold, exactly 17 minutes later they called me to tell me they had my number and all I need to do is activate the phone with the free 300 minutes that were included. Seventeen minutes!!! I found out later that it was transferred so fast because the service is really still handled by AT&T. For that matter, NET10 buys airtime in bulk from major carriers so they get a really great deal. That is how they can offer such a low price of 10¢ per minute.
Activating the phone with customer service
Okay, so I went through the steps of activation. The agent who called me gave me some codes to enter into the phone.
It didn't work. She told me it will take time now for the codes to register and I should see the
300 minutes appear on the phone's display in 15 minutes. Never happened.
I called customer service and waited the standard 10-minute hold-time. The service personnel are always very courteous, but I found out that they don't quite do everything right. The next girl had me enter the same codes again. And again I was told to wait 15 minutes after that. Still no good.
Activation the phone online by myself
So I decided to do it on my own. I logged into my NET10 account online and followed the guided steps to enter the activation codes. I recognized them as the same codes and same sequence as both service agents had told me. The only difference was that there were three steps of entering codes. The girls just told me the first step. This time when I completed the three steps by following along online, the phone came to life immediately. No 15-minute wait. I mean right on the spot!Testing the phone with a surprise
I started out making some phone calls to and from the phone to test it out. No problems whatsoever. The came the big surprise. I tested calling my cell and not answering. I heard my voice mail greeting and it let me leave myself a message. But I never set up my voicemail yet! It was already setup and had my greeting that I had recorded back when I was with AT&T. That's how I know the service for NET10 is really AT&T. If you transfer from Verizon, Alltel or T-Mobile it may be the same thing. These are all the carriers that NET10 buys airtime from. And when you use NET10 you actually share all the towers so you get the best signal of whatever carrier is the strongest where you are. How cool is that!Prepaid Data
NET10 is great for those who use the cell phone only for talking and not much of it. My $200 per year for service is good enough for over half an hour of chatting on weekends. Actually more like 40 minutes to be exact, 20 minutes on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. That is a $200 price tag for a whole year of NET10 service. Or if you like subscriptions, NET10 will give you 150 minutes per month with rollover and charge your credit card just $15 each month. That comes out to about the same thing. And you never have to worry. That's not a contract. You can cancel anytime and take your number with you.
How to disable the web browser
If you accidentally start the web browser, the best thing to do is shut the lid if you have a flip phone. I have done that a few times and fumbled or the end key in panic. I found that flipping the phone shut stops it before any minutes are deducted if you do it fast enough.There is a way to disable the web browser on some phones. Select SETTINGS then SECURITY then LOCK APPLICATION. Select the Browser and lock it. Then if you hit the browser key after that it will ask for a phone lock code.
Pay-As-You-Go Prepaid Airtime Cards
I thought a good way to end this review would be to give you a complete list of all the prepaid options you have available. Only three options are available in stores. There are other options you might find better for you that are available online by clicking any of the Airtime Card images below. Hope you enjoyed my saga of my experience. I'm happy I did it. I only wish I had made the switch a long time ago.
Glenn Stok, President of Stok Software, Inc. (STOK.COM)
Airtime Cards Available In Stores
Click Image To Order
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Airtime Cards Available Here Online
Click Image To Order 
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Airtime By Subscription With No Contract Required
This is a great method to use so you never have to think about buying airtime cards and adding the minutes to your phone. If your present usage is no more than 150 minutes per month and you are paying your carrier $40 or $50 or more, then this subscription service will reduce your monthly payments to $15. And if you have a sudden high-usage month down the road, you may not even pay extra because you will have accumulated roll-over minutes that keep adding up. Your NET-10 phone will always show you how many minutes you have accumulated and have available.to your phone every month
| Minutes | Days of Service | Cost |
| 150 | 30 | $15 |
